SEATTLE – Somewhere around 9 p.m. tonight, it won’t matter that Cal Ripken is playing his last All-Star Game.

The splendid timing of Seattle playing host to the Midsummer Classic in the very year the Mariners are off to an outrageous start won’t be significant.

Even the most adored of all Mariners, a global darling named Ichiro Suzuki, won’t be the center of attention for those who pack Safeco Field to watch eight Mariners, six Yankees and 16 others from the American League take on one Met and 29 others from the NL. None of that will matter when one of baseball’s most deeply rooted hatreds comes to a head again.

Roger Clemens will have a baseball in his right hand and Mike Piazza will have a bat the whole world hopes never makes it into The Rocket’s hands.

“This is the All-Star Game,” AL reserve catcher Jorge Posada said. “The All-Star Game is bigger than the Piazza-against-Clemens hype.”

Still, when the at-bat takes place, Bobby Valentine won’t be the only one on the top step.

“Everybody is going to be pumped up to see the at-bat,” Posada said. “As far as [Piazza and Clemens] are concerned, I think it’s all behind them and they can go on with their careers.”

That remains to be seen. The film clip of Clemens drilling Piazza on the helmet in a midseason at-bat last season was shown so often to hype the World Series that the prevailing prediction was the matchup couldn’t possibly live up to the hype. The feud exceeded all expectations when a wild-eyed Clemens fired a spear of a broken bat in front of Mike Piazza’s path as he was making his way down the first base line.

Clemens, making his first All-Star start since 1986 and halfway to what very well could be his sixth Cy Young Award, will pitch two innings, according to AL manager Joe Torre.

Piazza is batting sixth in Valentine’s NL lineup.

Do the math.

Clemens is a remarkable 21-3 since July 2, 2000, after returning from Florida, where he spent time on the disabled list with a groin strain.

During that stay, George Steinbrenner was among those who let Clemens know the Yan- kees were looking for an intimidator when they acquired him in exchange for David Wells.

Clemens emerged from the meeting as the old Rocket and returned to moving hitters off the plate.

Piazza, who had called a late timeout (elite pitchers hate that) two pitches before the fastball that knocked him onto his back, was convinced Clemens intended to hit him and wasn’t shy about expressing that viewpoint.

Piazza was asked yesterday: Will tonight’s at-bat bring closure?

“In order for there to be closure, there has to be an issue,” Piazza said. “There is no issue. I said what I said and moved on.”

Said Clemens: “I’ve faced Mike before. Looking at the lineup, I’ve got to face a bunch of guys anyway. He is not the only one I have to worry about.”

Torre elected to juggle his rotation to avoid a Clemens-Piazza confrontation in the two regular-season series.

Will tonight’s at-bat cut the tension and enable the athletes to get over it?

“I really don’t know what needs to be gotten over with,” Torre said.

Said Valentine: “After it’s over, we’ll know. Right now, I don’t know. . . . I’ll bet you it will be a great competition between the two of them.”